Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, apparently. The Times reports today that Politico–and all the other outlets declaring this to be, indeed, Obama’s Week of Veep–were correct in their “predictions.” And Nagourney/Zeleny go one (tentative) step further than their veep-sheepish counterparts: they pick a day for the Big Announcement.
And it’s…tomorrow!
Senator Barack Obama has all but settled on his choice for a running mate and set an elaborate rollout plan for his decision, beginning with an early morning alert to supporters, perhaps as soon as Wednesday morning, aides said.
While the Times article seeps uncertainty (“perhaps as soon as”; the headline is a hedge-y “Obama Ready to Announce Running Mate”; it stresses, in its second graf, Obama’s “command” to staff “not leak out until supporters are notified”; it spends only three grafs reporting new information about the announcement, and the remaining twenty-three in the kind of What Each Veep Would Bring to the Ticket style of analytic speculation that is the hallmark of pre-announcement Veepstakes journalism), it seems to have won the hour, so far, Conventional Wisdom-wise. Drudge picked up the story, reporting the Times‘s own prediction before its publication, and giving said meta-prediction a CW-making banner headline. (Though below that, tellingly, he included another headline: “Obama Keeps Everybody Guessing.”)
And Mark Halperin, who initially contradicted Drudge’s reporting (“Internetist claims NY Times plans to break Obama veep story in this news cycle–but he is wrong.”)–oh, snap!–has now removed the contradiction (“Oh, Matt,” it was called) from his blog…and replaced it with a “developing” semi-prediction in favor of a Biden nom. Hmm.
Anyway, though. Back to the real drama. Which is: the Vice man cometh! Soon! Maybe! Via text message! Tomorrow…tomorrow…he’ll love ya, tomorrow. It’s only a day…a…way!
